Leisure Travel Then and Now, by Martin Rapp

Twenty years ago I walked into a dealership to buy a new car.  A passionate young man and his cloud of cologne must have seen the overwhelmed look on my face instantly and instantly zeroed in on me.  He was maybe too passionate, and certainly wore too much cologne, but he helped me put into words what it was I needed.  I drove off the lot a happy customer.

To look at that car now is to see a very expensive box with an engine in it, but at the time it was quite a trendy purchase.  This year, when it was time to move on from the box’s replacement, I walked in to a very similar situation. The salesman wore a tighter suit and his glasses that were twenty-years out of style twenty years ago but are now experiencing a renaissance.  He wore far less cologne, and the rounded features of the ’91 model had given way to the precise angles of the ’12.  But beyond being shown a GPS instead of power windows, the overall experience was largely the same.  The way I bought a car had not fundamentally changed.

In some respects, the same cannot be said of Leisure Travel.

The January ALTOUR Index is Here

Every other month, ALTOUR sends a survey out to hundreds of its leisure agents to get a bead on the industry. We want to know the where people are headed, how often, and what their chief concerns are. This knowledge helps us plan ahead so we can provide a better service.  Below are some of our latest observations along with quotes from some of ALTOUR’s finest.